Explosive forward Hal Robson-Kanu is hoping his five pre-season goals will earn him a dream debut for Reading FC on the opening day of the Championship.

Explosive forward Hal Robson-Kanu is hoping his five pre-season goals will earn him a dream debut for Reading FC on the opening day of the Championship.

Royals take on Nottingham Forest at Madejski Stadium on Saturday, August 8 and new boss Brendan Rodgers is a big fan of the talented youngster’s powerful style of play.

Robson-Kanu has yet to feature in a competitive match for Reading, but he impressed on loan at Swindon Town last year, playing 20 games and scoring four goals.

Speaking from the team’s Swedish training camp, the 20-year-old told the Post: “Getting into the first-team has been my ambition for a couple of years now and hopefully I can do it this season. It’s been coming for a while.”

Robson-Kanu’s first-half hat-trick against Swedish part-timers Jonsereds IF last Tuesday will have given his first-team chances at Reading a massive boost.

He joins James Henry, Jem Karacan, Alex Pearce and Simon Church as the latest product of the youth set-up destined to make a lasting impression in the league this season.

Rodgers is likely to play a 4-3-3 formation and the versatile Robson-Kanu insists he is comfortable playing anywhere across the front three.

“It’s always nice to be playing,” he admitted.

“Playing where I was the other day (against Jonsereds), wide on the right, you always want to score and I was pleased I got three, but I’m happy to play wherever.

“I played 10 games for Swindon last year on the right, 10 for Swindon on the left and have also played 10 games for Southend up front.

“So I’m pretty comfortable all across the front line.”

With Stephen Hunt destined to leave the club, Jimmy Kebe and James Henry will be pushing Robson-Kanu all the way for a starting place out wide.

Noel Hunt and Nicholas Bignall have also featured on the flanks during pre-season matches.

But Robson-Kanu confessed that no matter who plays, he will be happy as long as the team wins.

The former Academy graduate added: “It’s all about winning games. That’s the most important thing. We’re a squad so we’ll always back each other.

“Sweden has been good. There’s been a lot of bonding between the boys and everyone has had the chance to get to know everyone a bit better.

“Our expectations this year are to do as well as we can.

“We can achieve whatever we want to achieve and we’ll stick together as a team.”